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100

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100

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The Armenian Genocide has left an irreversible trace in our history and in our spirits and the reflection of grief, yearning, hope is woven in chain in the Armenian fine arts. When human languages is powerless to express what happened in 1915, the language of art does have the power to do so. Different generations of Armenian famous artists have continuously addressed the great iniquity and the artworks dedicated to the Armenian Genocide have always had their unique places in their art. Armenian artists greatly contributed to the global acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide thought their art. Many of these works have been exhibited to public but even more of them are unknown till today.

100 years

CULTURAL GENOCIDE

Acts and measures undertaken to destroy the culture of a nation or an ethnic group is called "cultural genocide". Many facts prove that simultaneous with the massacres and deportation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, the government of the Young Turks masterminded and implemented systematic destruction of the material testimonies of the Armenian civilization.

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

A genocide is the organized extermination of a nation aiming to put an end to their collective existence. The extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and the surrounding regions during 1915-1923 is called the Armenian Genocide. Those massacres were masterminded and perpetrated by the government of Young Turks and were later finalized by the Kemalist government.

100 arts

The anguish of the Armenian Genocide, which is being reborn with every Armenian, has its own reflection in the Armenian fine arts. Many Armenian well known artists have created artworks both in Armenia and in Diaspora that are the speaking witness of the Armenian great pain, loss and yearning. These artworks are also ode to the Armenian viable genes, will power of giving birth, living and creation. Genocide is the type of crime that does have any expiration date. Human speech is sometimes powerless in expressing those things that are possible to express only through art. These 100 artworks will continuously tell the world about the unhealed wound of the Armenian, millions of innocent victims, demolished heartlands, bowed churches, lost homeland and infinite belief. The power of art is undeniable and artworks are eternal.

Artist:

Ashot Hovhannisyan

Title:

Escape, 1971

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Ashot Hovhannisyan
Title: Escape, 1971
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Shahen Khachatryan (Art critic): "Ashot Hovhannisyan’s art is the artistic form of understanding the country’s deepest layers and great power. Looking at the hands, feet, movements of the displaced people, one can see the artist’s inner power. The artist also painted himself on the carriage in the background in white as a part of the struggling power. His speech is about making his land asserted, fostering the progress of the identity of the nation."

Artist:

Gerardo Orakian

Title:

Yeghern (Genocide), 1947

Location:

National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Artist: Gerardo Orakian
Title: Yeghern (Genocide), 1947
Location: National Gallery of Armenian, Yerevan

Zhirayn Oragyan is enlisted among the artists who survived the Genocide. The canvases of the Armenian artist surviving the Genocide directly and indirectly express the memories of his childhood full of sadness, loneliness, grief, anguish and cherished dreams of seeing the motherland again. The master of expressionism Oragyan’s Yeghern(Genocide) canvas is the carrier of the expressive reflection of the Armenian mourning. An Italian art critic mentioned Oragyan as "Mysterious man, an artist of unusual nature".

Artist:

Hovhannes Aivazovsky

Title:

Night. Armenians Thrown Overboard, 1897

Location:

Armenian School, Beirut

Artist: Hovhannes Aivazovsky
Title: Night. Armenians Thrown Overboard, 1897
Location: Armenian School, Beirut

The Armenians inhabiting in the Ottoman empire have been continuously subjected to violence and massacres before the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Since 1894-96 more than hundred thousand Armenians have been massacred in various regions of the Western Armenia. This horrific and tragic news deeply influenced the world famous Hovhannes Aivazovsky. He expressed his pain and sufferings by creating series of painting such as "Night. Armenians thrown overboard", "The massacre of Trabizon", "Lord Byron visiting the Mekhitarist Congregation of ST Lazzaro", "Farewell" and the "Night. Tragedy at the Sea of Marmara" canvas as well.

Aivazovsky suddenly died in 1900 leaving the "Explosion of a Turkish warship" canvas unfinished on the molbert.

Artist:

Carzou (Garnik Zulumian)

Title:

Ruined Settlement, 1966

Location:

Artist's Family Collection

Artist: Carzou (Garnik Zulumian)
Title: Ruined Settlement, 1966
Location: Artist's Family Collection

Carzou: "The horrible destiny of the Armenian is also mine from the first days, when I lost my father and saw thousands of homeless people taken of Der-Zor."

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shared arts

Artist:

Adriana Angolian